by a tract of high ground towards the centre, and separated by two broad
plains,[54] towards the east and west. The eastern plain is the more
important of the two. It extends along the course of the Pediæus from
Leucosia, or Nicosia, the present capital, to Salamis, a distance of
thirty-five miles, and is from five to twelve miles wide. The fertility
of the soil was reckoned in ancient times to equal that of Egypt.[55]
The western plain, that of Morfou, is much smaller, and is watered by
a less important river. The whole island, when it first became known to
the Phoenicians, was well wooded.[56] Lovely glens opened upon them, as
they sailed along its southern coast, watered by clear streams from the
southern mountain-range, and shaded by thick woods of pine and cedar,
the latter of which are said to have in some cases attained a greater
size even than those of the Lebanon.[57] The range was also prolific of
valuable metals.[58] Gold and silver were found in places, but only in
small quantities; iron was yielded in considerable abundance; but the
chief supply was that of copper, which derived its name from that of
the island.[59] Other products of the island were wheat of excellent
quality; the rich Cyprian wine which retains its strength and flavour
for well nigh a century, the _henna_ dye obtained from the plant called
_copher_ or _cyprus_, the _Lawsonia alba_ of modern botany; valuable
pigments of various kinds, red, yellow, green, and amber; hemp and flax;
tar, boxwood,[510] and all the materials requisite for shipbuilding
from the heavy timbers needed for the keel to the lightest spar and the
flimsiest sail.[511]

The earliest of the Phoenician settlements in Cyprus seem to have lain
upon its southern coast. Here were Citium, Amathus, Curium, and Paphus,
the Palæ-paphus of the geographers, which have all yielded abundant
traces of a Phoenician occupation at a very distant period. Citium, now
Larnaka, was on the western side of a deep bay, which indents the more